


Stress

by EaSnowPw



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Anxiety, Crying, Fluff and Angst, Hurt Stephen Strange, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 21:48:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29196357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EaSnowPw/pseuds/EaSnowPw
Summary: It had been a bad week.Stephen was close to his breaking point.
Relationships: Tony Stark/Stephen Strange
Comments: 31
Kudos: 121
Collections: Snow's ironstrange dump





	Stress

It had been a bad week. 

Monday, he'd fought Nightmare, which would have been bad enough on its own, but Tuesday, they had an alien invasion and Tony narrowly escaped with his life. Stephen could never forget how close that spaceship had crashed to his boyfriend. Wednesday, he'd had a long day of paperwork and unpleasant meetings, because of course those had piled up, then on Thursday, he'd had to rescue a few students from a Hell dimension.

Now it was Friday, and the growing knot of anxiety in his chest was getting uncomfortable to the point of choking, ruining whatever little was left of this unforgiving week.

Meditating didn't help. His energy was all over the place, making it impossible to center himself. If anything, the thoughts that kept bombarding him were just pushing him closer to a spiral.

The Cloak, ever a loyal companion, stood by his side, trying to offer whatever comfort it could, but it wasn't much. Still, it was more than nothing, the heat helping with his aching body.

Friday was a bad hand day, which was usually enough to put him in a bad mood. This time, he wasn't sure if he wanted to scream or cry or vaporize something, or all three.

"Hey, Stephanie, am I interrupting anything?" Tony asked, poking his head into the bedroom.

Stephen shook his head.

"Just finished meditating. Oh." Tony was wearing a suit, which meant they probably had a dinner reservation. "Could we reschedule our date?"

"You busy?" the engineer asked, entering the room. "Should've called me before, but sure."

"Yes, I am... indisposed, so I'm afraid I wouldn't make good company," the sorcerer admitted, looking down.

Their relationship was still new, after all, so he didn't want to bring out all the skeletons in the closet just yet. His chest tightened and he forced himself to take deep, calming breaths. It wasn't working. For some reason, his body had declared it to be Anxiety Day.

Tony slowly approached him, looking concerned. Stephen avoided his eyes, but the shorter man picked up his hands, inspecting them. His intelligent gaze roamed all the scars and pains and easily noticed the trembling.

Stephen allowed it. This wasn't something he could hide, after all, and Tony was familiar enough with his own pains to know what was up. Still, his body was in fight or flight mode, heart beats picking up, despite knowing that Tony wouldn't hurt him. (If anything, he was pretty sure his boyfriend was now halfway through some new revolutionary technology that would help him.)

Stephen pulled his hands away, retreating them to his lap.

"We don't have to go out," Tony said, not acknowledging the rejection. "I just want to spend some time with you. I haven't seen you all week."

Stephen lowered his head. It wasn't an unreasonable request and he had missed Tony too, but he knew he was moments away from his breaking point and Tony didn't deserve that.

"It's been a bad week," he admitted, shifting a bit. The half-healed wounds on his body pulsed in pain, demanding new magical attention. He wasn't that young anymore and every fight seemed to leave a new reminder on his battered body.

Stephen gasped for air once, his body tensing uncomfortably. He just wanted to curl into a ball and stop existing.

"I can tell."

The next thing he felt were hands on the back of his head, guiding him to rest his forehead against Tony's warm belly. Stephen choked out a sob, shivering as he wrapped his arms around his boyfriend's waist, trying to spare his mangled hands.

"There you go, let it out."

So Stephen did, sobbing quietly and clinging desperately to the other man. His body hurt, his lungs screamed, his heart drummed into his ears and his hands ached with how hard he was holding on to Tony, but he didn't let go, trying to let it all out. All the stress and the pain and the worry and the exhaustion.

Tony didn't say anything, just held him, occasionally running his hands through Stephen's hair in a way he knew the other favoured, until Stephen's breath evened and his grip grew lax, a relaxed embrace rather than a desperate cling to sanity.

"Thank you," the sorcerer eventually muttered against the ruined expensive shirt.

"Anytime, honey."

Tony took half a step back, watching Stephen as he straightened, cloak wiping his tears.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No."

"Do you want to watch a movie?"

"Yes. In bed."

With a wave of his hand, the TV appeared at the foot of his bed. Tony accepted a magical change of clothes and crawled into bed next to him, Cloak moving to cover both of them like a blanket. If it squeezed Tony's hand a bit, then that was between the two of them.

* * *

Stephen fell asleep 30 minutes into the movie, curled around his boyfriend like an oversized cat, but that was alright. Tony had the feeling that he needed that. They could eat dinner when his sorcerer woke up.

Tony hadn't offered empty words of comfort because he knew they were useless. Their jobs were hard. They had huge responsibilities. Stress was inevitable and sometimes it got to be more than they could handle. He knew that. He'd always been aware of that.

He was also aware of the type of person Stephen was, likely to hold everything in until it became too much and he blew up. It was heartbreaking to witness, but Tony was comforted by the thought that he had helped, at the very least.

"Pineapple pizza," Stephen muttered against his shoulder, shifting in his sleep. He was probably waking up.

"No way, doc."

"Hmm?"

The sorcerer pushed himself up, rubbing at his eyes.

"You said pineapple pizza. Please tell me that's not what you want for dinner."

"And if it is?"

Tony put a hand on his chest in a dramatic display of shock.

"How could you? I thought you were my soulmate and now you go and do this?" he asked. "You can't possibly be such an uneducated fiend. Pineapple on pizza? Preposterous."

Stephen smiled, shaking his head.

"I'm afraid this is where our relationship ends, then. If you can't accept me for what I am-"

"Pineapple on pizza is against natural order-"

"Then we're incompatible."

"You're a monster."

Stephen's stomach growled.

"We are getting a normal pizza."

"Pineapple."

"Oh my God, please tell me you're pulling my leg."

Stephen chuckled.

"I am, no worries. I've never even tried it."

"Me neither, to be fair," Tony admitted, humming in thought. “Shall we?"

"We should. We're scientists. We have to make a reproducible test in order to draw a conclusion."

"Very well."

* * *

They had eaten a slice of pizza each when Stephen began talking.

"Tony, I'm so sorry," he said, looking utterly remorseful. "I understand if you'll hate from now on."

"Babe..."

"I'm sorry, but I love it."

"Me too," Tony admitted.

A beat of silence passed.

"This shall be our secret," Stephen declared.

"To the grave," Tony agreed.

Agreement made, they ordered another pineapple pizza.


End file.
